1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a print system which can input print jobs to a plurality of boxes of a printing apparatus and designate the print job to be processed from the print jobs inputted to the plurality of boxes by an information processing apparatus. The invention also relates to the information processing apparatus, the printing apparatus, a printing method, and a program which are used for such a print system.
2. Related Background Art
Hitherto, a box printing function is utilized in an information processing system having a host computer (hereinafter, referred to as a host) and a printer connected thereto.
According to the box printing function, the user forms print data in the host by using a printer driver or the like, and the print data is outputted (stored) into a storing device called a box provided in the printer. There can be a plurality of boxes and they are allocated for a personal use, a division use, and the like according to an application and an operation and used. For example, the user can activate the printer driver on the host and store a print job into the box allocated for the personal use (himself). Assuming that the print jobs with file names “File-12.doc”, “result.doc”, and “File-18.doc” exist in the box, the user can select a desired print job from the print jobs stored in the box and print an image onto paper by an instruction from a panel of the printer, an instruction from a utility of the host, or the like at arbitrary timing.
The box printing function effects remarkable convenience and high working efficiency. For example, by selecting a plurality of stored print data (jobs) in a lump, the user can output them in a lump. It is unnecessary that the user goes to the printer to pick up output matter each time the job is outputted. If the printer is shared with a plurality of users, a mixture of the output matter and output matter of other users can be avoided. The stored job can be used again at a high speed.
In the foregoing box printing function, in case of inputting the print jobs from the driver to the boxes and in case of executing the jobs in the boxes from the utility, it is necessary to search a desired box and designate the box or the print job inputted thereto. However, many boxes (for example, 100 boxes) have been set into the printer, and in a dialog to display a list of the boxes, all of the boxes cannot be simultaneously displayed. Therefore, it is necessary to repetitively execute a scrolling operation in order to search a desired box and designate it, so that searching performance is low. For example, when the boxes are sorted in order of the numbers allocated thereto, in case of reusing the box with the box No. 88 among the 100 boxes, it is necessary to execute the scrolling operation several times.
If box information which is used is insufficient or lacks, the searching performance deteriorates further. For example, there is a case where the user has lost his memory of the box information used before, or the like. As for timing when the job in the box is executed from the utility, the job is often reused after the elapse of a predetermined time after the job was inputted from the driver into the box. There is, consequently, a tendency such that the memory of the box information is easily lost. Particularly, for example, in the case where the box number has been allocated as box information but a box name is not set, the searching operation only according to the box number is executed, so that the searching performance deteriorates. Therefore, the user has to consciously record the information of the box onto paper or the like each time the box is used in consideration of use of the next time.
Further, in a situation such that one user uses a plurality of hosts or in an environment where the host to be used is not specified, it is necessary to carry the stored information, and use efficiency is low.